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We are led thus to the question of receptivity in things of
body.
An additional proof that bodies must have some substratum
different from themselves is found in the changing of the
basic-constituents into one another. Notice that the destruction
of the elements passing over is not complete- if it were we would
have a Principle of Being wrecked in Non-being- nor does an
engendered thing pass from utter non-being into Being: what
happens is that a new form takes the place of an old. There is,
then, a stable element, that which puts off one form to receive
the form of the incoming entity.
The same fact is clearly established by decay, a process implying
a compound object; where there is decay there is a distinction
between Matter and Form.
And the reasoning which shows the destructible to be a compound
is borne out by practical examples of reduction: a drinking
vessel is reduced to its gold, the gold to liquid; analogy forces
us to believe that the liquid too is reducible.
The basic-constituents of things must be either their Form-Idea
or that Primal Matter [of the Intelligible] or a compound of the
Form and Matter.
Form-Idea, pure and simple, they cannot be: for without Matter
how could things stand in their mass and magnitude?
Neither can they be that Primal Matter, for they are not
indestructible.
They must, therefore, consist of Matter and Form-Idea- Form for
quality and shape, Matter for the base, indeterminate as being
other than Idea.
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